1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to profile material processing technology, and more particularly, to a mobile robotic trolley-based processing system, which allows a highly automated consistent processing operation, increasing the processing efficiency, simplifying the production line and reducing the processing cost. The invention relates also to a mobile robotic trolley used in this mobile robotic trolley-based processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
At the present time, the manufacturing industry is facing the situation of shortage of labor, environmental consciousness and continuous rising in the cost of labor and management and the pressure of converting labor-intensive fabrication into technique-intensive fabrication. Manufacturers may hire cheaper foreign workers to substitute for local workers, or employ automated manufacturing lines, techniques and tools to improve the quality of management, saving labor cost, reducing manufacturing time and increasing the productivity.
In an automated manufacturing line, different apparatus and tools are provided at different workstations and controlled to perform different works, such as processing, inspection, cleaning, assembling, quality control, warehousing and delivery. Further, carts and conveyers are used to transfer workpieces from one workstation to another so that a worker at each workstation can manually transfer workpieces and operate the respective machine tool to process each workpiece. CNC (Computer Numerical Control) and NC (Numerical Control) machine tools may be used in different workstations for shaping or machining metal or other rigid materials by cutting, boring, grinding, shearing or other forms of deformation. This manual workpiece transfer operation is time and labor consuming. In order to eliminate the problem, robot arms may be used in the manufacturing line.
A robot arm is practical for long-term operation to repeat exactly the same action over and over again with zero error, assuring a high level of processing quality. Further, a robot arm may be equipped with a pick-and-place device made in the form of a gripper, or a set of vacuum mounts for picking up and placing workpieces. However, commercial robot arms are expensive. It costs a lot to install a large amount of robot arms in multiple workstations in an automated manufacturing line.
Further, the pick-and-place device of a robot arm can be of air-driven or electric-driven design. When compared with an electric-driven type pick-and-place device, an air-driven type pick-and-place device has the advantages of high torque, low cost, long-term operation ability, low energy consumption and low maintenance cost. Thus, air-driven type pick-and-place devices are widely accepted in different industries. However, when multiple robot arms that are respectively equipped with an air-driven type pick-and-place device are used in multiple workstations in an automated manufacturing line, air supply lines must also be installed to connect the air-driven type pick-and-place devices of the robot arms to a compressed air source. The arrangement of these air supply lines is a problem. These air supply lines can easily be stretched by an external force, causing troubles. An improvement in this regard is desired.